iOttie Easy Flex Qi Car Charger Review

One of the more convenient features of many of the Lumia Windows Phones is the Qi wireless charging. Whether you are fortunate enough to have Qi built into your Lumia Windows Phone or rely on the wireless charging covers, the technology offers a simple means to re-charging your phone.

Nokia has added the technology to their CR-200/201 car cradle and iOttie has followed suit with their Easy Flex Qi Car Charger. The iOttie Qi charger is designed similar to the company's Easy Flex 2 and One Touch car cradles with an easy one touch mounting system.

While the iOttie Easy Flex Qi is priced less than the Nokia, one small feature may negate any savings the wireless charging cradle may offer.

Design

The iOttie Easy Flex Qi Car Charger's cradle is your typical pinch/hold style smartphone cradle. It has an adjustable base that will help support the Windows Phone in place and two spring-loaded side arms that pinches the phone into place. A trigger button sits on the face of the cradle that, when pressed by the Windows Phone, will trigger the side arms of the cradle.

The cradle will accommodate phones that range in width from 2.5 inches to 3.3 inches. The Lumia 1020, 925 and 920 easily fit between the cradles arms. Keep in mind you'll need a charging cover for the 1020 and 925 to take advantage of the Qi charging. I don't have a Lumia 1520 handy but based on the measurement alone, it should fit.

To remove the Windows Phone you will need to pull the cradles arms apart until they click back into their open position. Removal is a two handed operation and the more I tinker with car cradles, the more I believe the design of the Nokia cradles works the best. While I like the one-touch mounting system, I would rather manually pinch the side arms to hold the phone into place and have a one-touch removal system. It's not difficult to remove your Windows Phone from the iOttie but it will take a little time to get used to the design.

The cradle is fitted to the mounting base by a ball joint that allows you to pivot the cradle to a slight angle. The cradle itself rotates 180 degrees and combined with the ball joint, the Easy Flex Qi is somewhat flexible.

The suction cup mount has the pressure lever to help create a solid seal. The suction cup is made of spongy, sticky rubber that helps create an airtight seal on most surfaces. The iOttie worked fantastic on smooth surfaces such as a windshield and textured surfaces such as the car dash.

Qi Charging

At the base of the cradle you will find a micro-USB charging port where you can attach the car charger plug. The charging plug lacks the USB accessory port that we are seeing more chargers come equipped with but the cord is long enough to accommodate most cradle placement locations.

Charging worked fine with the Lumia models I have that are fitted with charging covers and the Lumia 920 that has built in Qi charging. An LED is present to confirm charging status.

Fit and feel

The iOttie mounted firmly to both the dash and windshield of my car. The Windows Phone rode nicely in either the vertical or the horizontal orientation.

The biggest drawback of the iOttie is that with Lumia Windows Phones such as the Lumia 925 and 1020 the bottom quarter of the power button is depressed by the side arms. Closing the arms down on the power button wasn't enough to turn off the phone but did make it difficult to access the power button.

Lowering the cradle's base pad wasn't an option because the arms are too wide to fit in between the power and volume buttons on the Lumia Windows Phones.

Overall Impression

I really wanted to like the iOttie Easy Flex Qi Charger. The construction was solid, the cradle looked good and Qi charging is so nice. The iOttie is priced about $30 less than the Nokia CR-200/201 and saving a little money is always nice.

I wasn't a big fan of having to use both hands to remove the Windows Phone from the iOttie Easy Flex but having Qi charging balanced things out. The biggest issue was the placement of the side arms over just enough of the power button to be of concern. All iOttie would need to do is lower the arms just a smidgen and the fit would be ideal.

You could probably trim the padding on the side arm a touch but I'm afraid that would create an imbalanced hold. There's also the option of adding about 1/4 inch of padding on the cradles base to raise the phone but again, I'm worried that might weaken the secure hold.

All in all, the iOttie Easy Flex Qi Charger is a nice, attractively priced car cradle and if you can live with the power button being slightly pressed, it's an option worth considering. Otherwise, the best option for a Qi car cradle will likely be the Nokia CR-200/201. Which isn't a bad thing, just a slightly more costly thing.

You can find the iOttie Easy Flex Qi Charger directly from iOttie or through various third party retailers such as Amazon.com. The cradle is currently running in the neighborhood of $65-79.

Reader comments

iOttie Easy Flex Qi Car Charger Review

Just recently purchased this. The cable is not long enough to hardwire in my Acura TL. Using my Lumia 920 with HERE Drive app in the cradle results in the phone getting really hot. Don't know if it's overcharging because of the provided 2.0 Amps or not; but, the phone within 100 miles shut off automatically because of NO battery charge. You can literally watch the battery icon on the the display disappear. I know the Nokia Wall Charger provides 1.0 Amp & the Nokia Qi Plate provides is 750mA. So don't know if there's an incompatibility issue. Very disappointing.

ugly and dysfunctional placement of the microusbport. I wish they could figure out that the microusb connection runs through the base, not through the cradle. My CR-201 has the same issue. In time the cable gets in the way an limits the degrees of moment and turning of the cradle. I have a nokia lumia 1520. It is a little too big for the cr201 in my experience. If this one has similar dimensions it could fit, but it will be a very tight one and the size will cause an out-of-balance experience, the body will shake more and the power and camera button could be pressed by accident more.

What a piece of junk. These manufactures need to test their devices with more than just android phones if they want to make a lot of sales. That's the biggest problem I've found with car mounts, they all interfere with the buttons except the Nokia mounts. Problem is that the CR-123 is too small to fit Nokia phones with a case like the icon\930. So the only option is the CR-201 but it gets too expensive when I need to purchase a large quantity for our workers.

Anyway to answer your question; I like the fact it has a usb port because my car radio doesnt have bluetooth so my cigarette lighter is used up with the FM tuner. The FM tuner does have a USB port at the top. This way, i can KEEP my FM tuner plugged in, and plug this cradle INTO the USB port at the top. meaning I can charge my phone, also use the cradle, and also use the FM tuner.

So how about the 928? Although it was the best offer at the time, 928 users complained that the Nokia car charger did no work well with it. How does this charger work for the 928 as people said either the power or camera buttons are different.

I am using the CR-200 with my Icon. But, I had to trim the right pad to avoid hitting the camera button. Even so, it still holds securely. However, the CR-201 is an updated version of the CR-200 and is not supposed to have fixed that problem.

I have an iOttie Easy One Touch and it worked great with my Lumia 928. The side holders fit right in between the camera and power buttons. However with my Icon the sides press in the power button just enough to try and turn the phone off. You can use it but you need to position it carefully.